To Comma or Not to Comma: The Mathematics of the Relative Clause, All Types, via Boole and Venn

Leo Depuydt

Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies, Brown University, Providence, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ijis.2012.24015                

Abstract

The present paper is part of a large scale project in Intelligence Science. The nearterm aim of this project is the increased digitalization of the analysis of human intelligence in as far as intelligence is rational. The ultimate aim is to draw up a complete and definitive map of the totality of rational human intelligence or rational thought and language. As far as the mathematical component of this project is concerned, two contributions have appeared so far, the following: 1) “The Monty Hall Problem and beyond: Digital-Mathematical and Cognitive Analysis in Boole’s Algebra, Including an Extension and Generalization to Related Cases”, in Advances in Pure Mathematics (www.scirp.org/journal/apm), Vol. 1, No. 4 (July 2011), pp. 136-154; 2) “Higher Variations of the Monty Hall Problem (3.0, 4.0) and Empirical Definition of the Phenomenon of Mathematics, in Boole’s Footsteps, as Something the Brain Does”, in Advances in Pure Mathematics (www.scirp.org/journal/apm), Vol. 2, No. 4 (July 2012), pp. 243-273, including an appendix by Richard D. Gill. The present paper pertains to the linguistics branch of the project. It is concerned with linguistic cognition. The focus of this paper is on a single phenomenon, the relative clause and all its possible types. The method of analyzing the structure of rational thought and language that is advanced in this paper and applied to the relative clause claims validity on the following three grounds. First, it is mathematical and digital in the strictest possible sense. Second, the empirical data to which this mathematical method is applied are fully accessible in language. After all, all that is essential to that structure must be exteriorized in sounds or written symbols for the structure to be transported from one brain to another and understood. The structure must somehow be encoded in its entirety in the airwaves or light beams that travel to a hearer’s ear or a reader’s eye. And these airwaves and light beams are accessible to observation. Third, general inspiration and encouragement can be drawn from the fact that it has already been long established that the brain teems with digital activity, including in the prefrontal cortex. In sum, there is every incentive for dissecting language in search of the digital structure of rational thought and its expression in language. The design of the present paper is to demonstrate that the structure can be found.

Keywords

Boolean Algebra; Brain Science; Digital Structure; Electrical Engineering; Language; Linguistics; Logic; Mathematics; Neuroscience; Rational Thought

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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